Sending Tasting Samples

Catering deals are often won on a tasting. Somebody fills in your contact form
or calls about a 200-person wedding, and the next move is to get food in front
of them — a sample box, a few signature trays, a full tasting menu.

Send Sample turns that into one action from the pursuit. You pick a saved
order template, say when and where it's going, and the system creates a draft
order carrying the sample's lines and prices.

Before You Start

Send Sample ships a saved order template, so you need at least one at the
pursuit's kitchen. Templates are created from real orders, not from a blank
form — build the tasting the way you want it, then save it.

See Order Templates for how.

If the pursuit's kitchen has no templates yet, the modal says so and offers a
shortcut to start building an order you can save as one.

Sending a Sample

1. Open the opportunity.
2. Choose Send Sample.
3. Pick a template. Each option shows how many lines it has, whether it's
   delivery or pickup, and what it's worth — templates that cost nothing are
   marked Free.
4. Set "Deliver on." This is a date and a time, defaulting to noon on the
   pursuit's event date. Set the time the drop-off is actually due — the kitchen
   and the delivery board both work off it.
5. Choose where it's going. If the customer already has saved shipping
   addresses, pick one from the dropdown. Otherwise type a new one — start
   typing in the street field and pick from the address suggestions to fill in
   the city, state, and ZIP automatically.
6. Leave Save this address to the customer ticked to keep the address for
   next time. It's only saved if it's complete enough to reuse; a partial
   address still ships on this order.
7. Click Send sample.

You land directly on the new draft order, with the sample's lines already on it.

What Happens Behind the Scenes

A customer record is created if there isn't one. A web inquiry that hasn't
been linked to a customer yet gets converted as part of the send, so the sample
has somebody to belong to.

The prices are the template's, not the menu's. A tasting box saved at $0
arrives at $0. If the template waives the delivery fee, the fee on the draft is
zeroed too.

The order is flagged as a sample. This matters for your pipeline: a sample
is not a quote, so sending one doesn't advance the pursuit's stage, doesn't
count toward its active quotes, and doesn't drop the pursuit out of your New
Inquiry filters. The pursuit stays exactly where it was until you send a real
quote.

Notes are combined. The template's own instructions ("keep chilled, two
trays") lead, and the pursuit's description follows, so the kitchen sees both.

After the Sample Is Sent

The draft is an ordinary sales order. You can add lines, adjust quantities,
attach rental equipment, send it as a quote, or confirm it into production —
everything works as it does on any other order.

On the opportunity, the sample shows in the quotes section with a Sample
badge so it's easy to tell apart from real quotes.

When the tasting goes well and it's time to price the actual event, use New
Quote on the pursuit as normal. Both documents stay attached to the same
opportunity.

Related

• Order Templates — creating and managing the templates samples are sent from.